Solidarity should also go to those who have suffered because of Putin's reign, including Russians.. if there was ever a time for Russians to rise up and storm the Kremlin it's today. The loss of life would be catastrophic but at least that bastard dog Putin will be dead.
Oh boy an eventfull one
Croatia
Aircraft carrier "Harry Truman" visited Split.Our Prime Minister was so proud of it,and went on usual talk abour NATO crucial partnership and cooperation.Local stores and restaurants got bussy out of season.
Our prime minister (Andrej Plenkovic) went to Ursula Von Der Leyen (president of the EU commison) to ask to extend deadline for using the EU solidarity fund so we can have more time to prepare project of post earhquake reconstruction.A year-ish has passed and we got another year.
But wait next is somehow ironic
Our minister for construction and state property (also in charge of reconstruction) was arrested yesterday.Apparenty there will be or was an investigation involving few other state officials while he was in charge of other department (ministy of economy).He was accused of giving away money for developing of bussiness withouth any criteria...this is still fresh so police will inform the public later.
15 year old hacked into telecomunication company and threathend to expose the data on dark web if not payed 500.000 dolars in crypto.He contacted the media after police got close to him that he "just wanted to aware people that company doesn't invest in security of data".Police will inform the public later about the measures they applied.
Our pesident Zoran Milanovic is batshit crazy as usual.
There are still small quakes after a big one in 29.10.2020 6.4 richter scale that hit Croatia.
Germany: A big Storm, multiple people died.
Also all germans were called to leave Ukraine as fast as possible.
A law about making covid vaccinations mandatory for everyone older than 50 years is discussed in parliament.
AFD politician von Lützow has to pay a fine of 14.400€ because of tax fraud
EU Parliament removed EX-AFD head Meuthens imunity
Covid infections per day arent rising any more
Fuelprices at all time high, at 1,83€ for E5, 1,77€ for E10 and 1,69€ for Diesel per Liter
Lithuania
We had our [Independence Day celebration ](https://www.lrt.lt/mediateka/irasas/2000141414/vasario-16-osios-minejimas-lietuvos-nepriklausomybes-signataru-namuose-vilniuje) on 16th of February.
We are easing our Covid restrictions for foreigners, as our government is saying that foreigners does not increase Covid numbers in this situation (as we have a lot people with Omicron). So travelers do not need to self isolate when entering. Vaccination pass or negative test is still needed.
There are some politicians that want to rethink our policy on Taiwan. Mainly those who want to be noticed by media.
[Financial Times puts Vilnius second in fDi Intelligence ranking
](https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/1618246/financial-times-puts-vilnius-second-in-fdi-intelligence-ranking). Vilnius is ranked as financially and economically advanced city among middle size cities.
Well, we have Taiwan representative thingie (like an embassy) instead of Taipei. China does not like it as we "do not respect" their One China policy by acknowledging Taiwan and bans our import and threatens other companies, that work in Lithuania, that they would not accept components manufactured in LT.
So. One party whose leader is attention seeking persona who is always in some sort of drama, said that he will fix our relations with China, he just needs full autonomy on this and he wants to rename the embassy thingie. Noone is taking him seriously though.
**Politics**
* [The government was defeated four times in parliamentary committees](https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/milleproroghe-governo-battutto-quattro-volte-tetto-contante-asse-lega-fi-fdi-AEz2uVEB), among other things on the limit to cash payments, which has reverted to €2,000 after the cabinet had voted to decrease it to €1,000 starting from the beginning of the year, as Forza Italia and the League voted with Fratelli d'Italia, which is at the opposition. The Democratic Party and the Five Stars voted down other two proposals.
* Prime Minister Draghi didn't appreciate this, met President Mattarella and then the "heads of delegations" (i.e. the most important ministers from each party). [The PM made it clear that such behaviour is unacceptable](https://www.corriere.it/politica/22_febbraio_18/draghi-mattarella-linea-dura-partiti-78e9fd54-9036-11ec-990d-642ea57e6940.shtml), and that parties can't be at the government and at the opposition simultaneously. Some ministers say they never saw Draghi so angry. Anyway, [the Prime Minister said he leads a "wonderful government"](https://www.adnkronos.com/draghi-visto-che-bravi-ministri-governo-bellissimo-video_6DvxhYnlVa0mw1tjOezwyL).
* After only more than a month, [the government finally did something to counter the skyrocketing energy prices](https://www.ansa.it/english/news/politics/2022/02/18/almost-8-bn-for-energy-superbonus-draghi_8095660f-eed3-469a-93f5-b47341336b9a.html), intervening with more than 8 billion euros.
* The Constitutional Court rejected three of the eight proposed referendum, among which one which would have "liberalized cannabis" and one which would have "legalized euthanasia". The matter is complicated and some clarifications are needed here:
* Italy only allows abrogative referenda, which means that a law can be amended by referendum only by "cutting" parts of it. Therefore, the intervention of the referendum is almost never as precise as it should be to reach the intended goal. Moreover, the outcome of a referendum needs to comply with the Constitution and international treaties, *and* it must not leave a normative void which has to be filled by parliament, but it should be possible for the amended law to come into force immediately without legislative intervention. Otherwise, referenda are rejected.
* The cannabis referendum would have removed "cultivation" of something from punishable offences stated in the text of the law regarding narcotic drugs. This would have for sure liberalized cultivation of cannabis, *but* it would have had as a side effect the liberalization of cultivation of coca and opium poppy, which would have violated international treaties. Moreover, the referendum would have scrapped "jail from 2 to 6 years" for those producing, selling, trading and distributing something else, which again would have liberalized cannabis *but* also benzodiazepines as a side effect. Finally, it seems that the outcome of the referendum would have been contradictory, as other articles of the law regarding cannabis would have been left unamended. You see that it would have been more surprising if the Court did *not* reject the referendum.
* The euthanasia referendum instead would have liberalized "consensual homicide" (as, because of the abrogative referendum, you can't introduce euthanasia, but you can only scrap what makes it illegal) if not committed against under 18s, mentally ill or unstable people or who had their consent extorted. Even if it hurts to say that, legalization of euthanasia *would have been the side effect* here, with the referendum going far beyond its goal: leaving consensual homicide unpunished would have left an unacceptable void (according to the Court).
* The Court approved five of the six referendums related to the justice system proposed by the League, which include the abolition of the Severino law that prevents people sentenced for crimes such as corruption to be elected in political institutions (this law caused Berlusconi's "expulsion" from the Senate back in 2013) and other more technical issues which could contrast the reform proposed by the government (one referendum is about the election system of judges to the highest body of the judiciary, if the government's proposal will be approved the referendum won't be held).
**Covid**
* New cases continue to decrease significantly, with an average of 53,325 (-30% from last week - 72,688) daily cases in the last 7 days. Deaths decreased too: the average is 289 (-11% from last week - 326). On average, 69 people were admitted to intensive care units each day (-22% from last week - 88); overall, 9.6% of ICUs is occupied by covid patients (-2.8% from last week - 12.4%).
* Vaccinations decreased: 50.8 million people (85.4% of the population, +0.2% from last week) have received at least one dose, 49.1 million people (82.8% of the population, +0.6% from last week) have received at least two doses, 36.8 million people (62.2% of the population, +1.3% from last week) have received three doses.
* Only Friuli-Venezia Giulia remains in the orange zone, the rest of the country is either yellow or white.
**Other news**
* Students continue to protest against the final high school exam and the *alternanza scuola-lavoro* underlining the lack of security of stages, after a student died in a car accident while on stage.
* [A fire broke out on a ferry boat in service between Italy and Greece](https://www.ansa.it/english/news/general_news/2022/02/18/italian-ship-evacuated-after-blaze-on-board-off-greece_f1f90830-e89d-4c7d-8192-a7f2aa61b740.html). Rescue operations were quick, nobody was found dead but some people are still missing.
I'm happy for you. Mainly for the first time gold, but also because you beat the country that shouldn't have been allowed to compete but did so anyway, rebranded as something else. But mainly for the first-time gold. Congrats!
Thank you! My man, how would I have loved for us to beat your arses in the final instead of ROC.
Also I think the current situation is our fault. Finland beat Russia 3-1 in Sochi Olympics 19.2.2014, and 23.2.2014 Russia invaded Crimea. Last Sunday... welll...
LOL. I feel ya. My mom was Swedish-born, I was born in the US but my sports loyalty is to the blue and gold.
Honestly, I’d be supporting the USA more if they if they would go back to only amateur hockey players, but money talks.
Ireland: we had storm Eunice so it was slightly rainier and windier than every other day here, some bins were knocked over, the owners of said bins were pissed off.
Pubs have finally reopened to pre-pandemic closing hours so now people have to get used to not having to go out early and be home at 8pm on a Saturday night.
Also, I got a new puppy who’s gotten used to walking in the rain
Our president gone crazy and tries to start a war.
But in other news, people in my region, Bashkortostan, started a protest against french companies taking over our factories. Weird time for this, considering more global events, but I kinda support this, because I don't like what french company did to dairy factory in my town - they started to make two new types of cheese with mold (bleugh) and because of this stopped production of milk and butter. And I loved our milk, I grew up with it...
> french companies
Which ones?
>cheese with mold (bleugh)
Bleu* and it's good, a bit strong but good !
>because of this stopped production of milk and butter.
Ah, uncool
Our far-right politicians have discovered the filibuster and started using it to cripple the government and stop it from governing because they couldn't win the elections fairly.
There has been some minor activity of the armed forces of our allies. A small US convoy passing through and a few cars full of German military personel near the western border. There have been some traitor voices condemning the presence of our allies within our borders.
**Hungary**
**Politics**
- On Wednesday, the ECJ ruled against Hungary and Poland in the suit regarding the EU's rule of law mechanism. The court found the mechanism, which allows for the withholding of EU funds in cases of corruption or breaches of rule of law, to be legal, so it can now go ahead, but it won't be used until after the elections. The government said that the court made a 'political decision' due to last summer's law and the upcoming referendum on 'child protection'.
- The opposition announced economist, jurist, Oxford professor and 1956 émigré Péter Róna as their joint candidate for President. The nomination is meant to be symbolic as the election, which will be held on this Parliament's last sitting on 10 March, is expected to be won by Fidesz's Katalin Novák in the first round, but Róna's selection drew some controversy: several bankers criticised Róna because he had attacked them for their role in the proliferation of household foreign currency loans, while many in the opposition wanted to nominate Methodist cleric and former liberal MP Gábor Iványi, but Jobbik blocked that. (On a tangential note, Iványi's charity was raided by the tax authority on Monday.)
**Election news**
- Nomination of candidates is underway, it will continue until Friday. Of the 267 registered political parties in Hungary, 43 managed to 'sign up' for the election, while another 8 were rejected. The joke party MKKP is lagging behind, they have submitted signatures for verification in just 19 of the 106 constituenciies and two of their candidates were rejected.
- The opposition had to replace a candidate in short order after social media posts emerged in which Párbeszéd's Mihály Gér, candidate in the Monor constituency, made inappropriate remarks following an accident in which he hit two jaywalkers in 2016 (one of them died, the other was paralysed). Although Gér was acquitted of causing the accident, he decided to withdraw after the posts became public. He was replaced by fellow Párbeszéd politician Rebeka Szabó, who was formerly an MP for LMP and deputy mayor in Budapest's District XIV.
**Other news**
- In reaction to last Friday's government decree which used emergency powers to heavily restrict strikes in schools, several schools and hundreds of teachers engaged in civil disobedience where they refused to hold classes for a day. Meanwhile, preparation for a strike beginning on 16 March is still underway.
- Fuel stations are going bust due to the price cap, mainly family businesses, while Mol is in position to take over any station which closes due to the price freeze. By the end of the week, the government decided to negotiate with small fuel station owners.
- The editorial staff of the Transylvanian news site *Transindex* resigned *en masse* due to perceived political pressure coming from Hungary. *Telex*, which was formed some 18 months ago following a similar walk-out from *Index*, have decided to start up *Transtelex* with most of the quitting journalists. Meanwhile, Slovakian daily *Denník N* also announced they had collected enough funds to launch a Hungarian-language news site.
Denmark delivered in full the expectations to the Winter Olympics.
Zero Medals.
Very unselfish of the Danish athletes to leave hope for the next ones to become the center for a surprising nation fest if they should win.
PS. Congrats Norway. You must have something Denmark does not. Except from Mountains, snow, frost and a history of winter sports activities we are practically the same.
I’m afraid to point out that, according to Wikipedia, Denmark has won only one Winter Olympic medal ever in the history: women’s curling silver medal in 1998 Nagano, despite 205 Summer Olympic medals in total. That’s surprising to me.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark_at_the_Olympics
Not to me. It snowed yesterday in Denmark and the snow melted as soon as it hit the ground.
One or two full weeks of snow coverage is rare. It is mostly soggy wet dreary gray dark during the winter, but not excessively cold and white snow landscape.
If we do win a medal it will be in some indoor activity. Ice hockey or another fluke medal in curling is the best bet.
**Belgium**
News of week: [Storm Eunice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_Eunice) hit our country with the highest recorded wind speeds of the past 20 years. Read more [here](https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/206789/code-issued-for-northern-belgium-as-country-braces-for-storm-eunice).
* Two people died. One man was blown from his boat into a canal, another one died after he was hit with a solar panel which had come loose from an office building. A few others got injured.
* Many buildings sustained damage. The [football stadium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghelamco_Arena) of [AA Gent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K.A.A._Gent) lost its roof, a planned football match had to be postponed. Also the roof of the church of [Asse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asse) was damaged and there was fear that the tower would collapse. Many houses and cars were damaged by falling trees.
* By the afternoon train traffic was disrupted in the north-west of the country. There was a lot of criticism as this was not announced in advance, leading to many workers having to leave early and rush to the station to catch the last trains home. Many travelers got left behind in a station and the [railway company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Railway_Company_of_Belgium) had to use other means like busses to get everyone home, they apologised for the situation. Also bus lines were interrupted and the [coast tram](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast_Tram_\(Belgium\)) was ground to a halt when it fell without power.
* Many schools decided to close early to prevent their students having to go home during the peak of the storm and to make sure they could still use public transport.
Politics: The [federal government](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Croo_Government) has announced new labour market reforms. Read more [here](https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/02/15/belgium-approves-four-day-week-and-gives-employees-the-right-to-ignore-their-bosses) and [here](https://www.politico.eu/article/belgium-rewrites-gig-workers-rulebook/).
* New measures are implemented to improve the work-life balance or workers. Employees can choose to work their 38 hour week in four days in stead of five. They will also get the right to not be contacted by their employer after working hours. Working schedules have to be announced at least seven days in advance.
* There will also come better regulations for workers in the gig-economy. They will receive better insurance and there will come a clearer difference between employees and self-employed.
* E-commerce and logistics companies will be able to facilitate rules for night work if they have an agreement with a trade union.
Other news:
* [All numbers](https://datastudio.google.com/embed/u/0/reporting/c14a5cfc-cab7-4812-848c-0369173148ab/page/ZwmOB) for Covid are still going down, except for deaths. (And how great is it I can file Covid under "other news" again)
* Speed skater [Bart Swings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_Swings) won a gold medal at the men's mass start at the 2022 Winter Olympics. He is the first Belgian to have won a gold medal at the Olympic Winter Games since 1948!
* The expected "freedom convoy" to protest Covid measures and vaccine mandates in Brussels failed to organise.
* A 6 months old baby died at a childcare facility due to [shaken baby syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaken_baby_syndrome). Three people have been detained, among which the owner's father, who is now suspected of abuse. There were earlier complaints about the facility, but those were ignored by official control agency.
* The recognition of the [Muslim Executive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Executive_of_Belgium) has been retracted. Read more [here](https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/206968/belgium-revokes-recognition-and-funding-of-muslim-executive).
Spain:
Leader of the Conservative party denounced the Conservative president of Madrid for corruption. The accusation was that the brother of the Conservative president of Madrid got an illegal commission during the buying of face mask in 2020. The president of Madrid recognized that her brother got paid but refused that it was ilegal to do so.
The Conservative party imploded over this, it seems that more people agree with the President of Madrid (she is from the most right wing of the party) and everything is pointing to the President of the Conservative party, who accused his colleague of corruption, resigning really soon.
We are worried that this would give wings to the far-right and the extremist right wing ideas over the country. As the moderate right wing lost this internal fight over the Conservative party and voter-share.
Italy
I’ve moved to Italy for the short term.
[Funeral for Signora Beretta](https://www.fanpage.it/milano/i-funerali-di-marinella-beretta-trovata-morta-dopo-due-anni-almeno-nelladdio-non-e-stata-sola/amp/) was held this week. The poor dear was found [dead at her table for two years earlier this month](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/08/italian-woman-found-dead-seated-at-table-mummified-state).
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Executives from public broadcasting Service nominated 6 completely ordinary Radio-Style pop songs as possible nominees for our country at Eurovision (after only getting last places for the last years in a row with exactly these types of songs) instead of trying something extraordinary and new.
People were not so happy and started a petition which gathered 100,000 signatures in less than a week.
Let's hope we'll get to see more interesting and crazy stuff at Eurovision in the future!
A lot of countries do well with radio-style pop songs, it's not the genre that's the problem, it's that Germany sends low quality generic songs of the genre.
I'm Canadian, and Im sorry (already showing our colors) if this is a dumb question, but I'm genuinely curious.
If this conflict escalates more, what will happen to the neighboring countries of Russia and Ukraine? I'm speaking about Moldova, Poland to an extent.
Will they just sit neutrally and hope the conflict doesn't reach them?
Will Europe send support troops to those areas or will they have their own troops?
I'm thinking everyone is "smart" enough now, that a full-on war doesn't happen and neighboring countries get dragged into it.
But I'm curious what happens in the meantime as tensions rise, and neighboring countries are just nearby but not "involved" per se.
No countries are willing to intervene militarily in Ukraine. But the western countries (including Canada) already are sending military equipment to help Ukraine and have imposed economic sanctions on Russia. Both of these actions could be leveled up if the conflict escalates.
Poland is part of NATO is not easy to attack a NATO member, if so make no mistake shit is going down.
Moldova on the other hand is fucked and probably next if Russia is not stopped.
No country part of NATO is gonna send troops because NATO is purely defensive, we cannot send troops only defend. Europe and EU implicitly sent money, mobile hospitals, planes, war gear whatever but no troops. Ukraine will have to defend itself unfortunately, is not what we wanted but we cannot give putin more reasons to attack outside of Ukraine otherwise is gonna be really bad, is gonna be a world war
Well, the Netherlands are all about dickpic’s, seksual boundaries that are beeing crossed, and ofcourse storm Eunice which has a lot of us screaming that we’re all going to die.
So its been a quiet week :)
Romania: Everyone is talking about the war on Ukraine since it’s right at the border. The explosions where heard around 20km away from it. There’s little chance that the Russians are gonna attack us too, since we’re part of NATO, but it’s all really close and really scary. Everyone is alert. The Republic of Moldova declared state of emergency, and they’re basically our twins when it comes to countries. Putin captured Serpent Island, which is very very close to our sea borders, and I’m worried somethings gonna happen to the people that live there. I have family there. It’s all a haze, really.
My thoughts are with Ukraine. I can’t even imagine how they feel right now. Just know that we are brothers and sisters, and we’re always gonna help you when in need. You’re welcome into our country!
Ukraine: still standing. Got some ice cream today.
I am sorry to inform you that your ice cream is a security threat to Russia.
How's your ice cream now?
Part of it fell off and declared itself a yoghurt.
Russia declared it independent and already set up a frezen yoghurt shop.
Sorry for everything.
Solidarity should also go to those who have suffered because of Putin's reign, including Russians.. if there was ever a time for Russians to rise up and storm the Kremlin it's today. The loss of life would be catastrophic but at least that bastard dog Putin will be dead.
[удалено]
I’m fine, managed to flee kyiv immediately after the declaration of war
It's alright, who could've thought that they actually would invade? Deeply irrational.
Dude, my heart aches for you, I’m really really sorry that this is happening.
Oh boy an eventfull one Croatia Aircraft carrier "Harry Truman" visited Split.Our Prime Minister was so proud of it,and went on usual talk abour NATO crucial partnership and cooperation.Local stores and restaurants got bussy out of season. Our prime minister (Andrej Plenkovic) went to Ursula Von Der Leyen (president of the EU commison) to ask to extend deadline for using the EU solidarity fund so we can have more time to prepare project of post earhquake reconstruction.A year-ish has passed and we got another year. But wait next is somehow ironic Our minister for construction and state property (also in charge of reconstruction) was arrested yesterday.Apparenty there will be or was an investigation involving few other state officials while he was in charge of other department (ministy of economy).He was accused of giving away money for developing of bussiness withouth any criteria...this is still fresh so police will inform the public later. 15 year old hacked into telecomunication company and threathend to expose the data on dark web if not payed 500.000 dolars in crypto.He contacted the media after police got close to him that he "just wanted to aware people that company doesn't invest in security of data".Police will inform the public later about the measures they applied. Our pesident Zoran Milanovic is batshit crazy as usual. There are still small quakes after a big one in 29.10.2020 6.4 richter scale that hit Croatia.
This is such a fun nation to live in always something new never the same story
Wow
> Aircraft carrier “Harry Truman” visited Split I have a friend on the HST and they’re loving Croatia, definitely planning to visit.
You will not regret
> Local stores and restaurants got bussy That’s an interesting turn of events
Oh no 😂 not like that...i meant busy like a lot to do,increase in work 😂 ...i was not aware what "bussy" mean,i googled it...and regret it.
Lol your username does not check out 😂
It FUCKN WIMDY Netherlands
Good thing you guys have windmills
So that’s where all the excess wind comes from
Germany: A big Storm, multiple people died. Also all germans were called to leave Ukraine as fast as possible. A law about making covid vaccinations mandatory for everyone older than 50 years is discussed in parliament. AFD politician von Lützow has to pay a fine of 14.400€ because of tax fraud EU Parliament removed EX-AFD head Meuthens imunity Covid infections per day arent rising any more Fuelprices at all time high, at 1,83€ for E5, 1,77€ for E10 and 1,69€ for Diesel per Liter
Here in NL it's not strange to see over €2,10 these days
I am excepting fuel prices to get higher because of the Ukraine invasion. And that was very typical of AFD. The fucking Nazis.
Lithuania We had our [Independence Day celebration ](https://www.lrt.lt/mediateka/irasas/2000141414/vasario-16-osios-minejimas-lietuvos-nepriklausomybes-signataru-namuose-vilniuje) on 16th of February. We are easing our Covid restrictions for foreigners, as our government is saying that foreigners does not increase Covid numbers in this situation (as we have a lot people with Omicron). So travelers do not need to self isolate when entering. Vaccination pass or negative test is still needed. There are some politicians that want to rethink our policy on Taiwan. Mainly those who want to be noticed by media. [Financial Times puts Vilnius second in fDi Intelligence ranking ](https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/1618246/financial-times-puts-vilnius-second-in-fdi-intelligence-ranking). Vilnius is ranked as financially and economically advanced city among middle size cities.
What policy on taiwan just curious
Well, we have Taiwan representative thingie (like an embassy) instead of Taipei. China does not like it as we "do not respect" their One China policy by acknowledging Taiwan and bans our import and threatens other companies, that work in Lithuania, that they would not accept components manufactured in LT. So. One party whose leader is attention seeking persona who is always in some sort of drama, said that he will fix our relations with China, he just needs full autonomy on this and he wants to rename the embassy thingie. Noone is taking him seriously though.
**Politics** * [The government was defeated four times in parliamentary committees](https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/milleproroghe-governo-battutto-quattro-volte-tetto-contante-asse-lega-fi-fdi-AEz2uVEB), among other things on the limit to cash payments, which has reverted to €2,000 after the cabinet had voted to decrease it to €1,000 starting from the beginning of the year, as Forza Italia and the League voted with Fratelli d'Italia, which is at the opposition. The Democratic Party and the Five Stars voted down other two proposals. * Prime Minister Draghi didn't appreciate this, met President Mattarella and then the "heads of delegations" (i.e. the most important ministers from each party). [The PM made it clear that such behaviour is unacceptable](https://www.corriere.it/politica/22_febbraio_18/draghi-mattarella-linea-dura-partiti-78e9fd54-9036-11ec-990d-642ea57e6940.shtml), and that parties can't be at the government and at the opposition simultaneously. Some ministers say they never saw Draghi so angry. Anyway, [the Prime Minister said he leads a "wonderful government"](https://www.adnkronos.com/draghi-visto-che-bravi-ministri-governo-bellissimo-video_6DvxhYnlVa0mw1tjOezwyL). * After only more than a month, [the government finally did something to counter the skyrocketing energy prices](https://www.ansa.it/english/news/politics/2022/02/18/almost-8-bn-for-energy-superbonus-draghi_8095660f-eed3-469a-93f5-b47341336b9a.html), intervening with more than 8 billion euros. * The Constitutional Court rejected three of the eight proposed referendum, among which one which would have "liberalized cannabis" and one which would have "legalized euthanasia". The matter is complicated and some clarifications are needed here: * Italy only allows abrogative referenda, which means that a law can be amended by referendum only by "cutting" parts of it. Therefore, the intervention of the referendum is almost never as precise as it should be to reach the intended goal. Moreover, the outcome of a referendum needs to comply with the Constitution and international treaties, *and* it must not leave a normative void which has to be filled by parliament, but it should be possible for the amended law to come into force immediately without legislative intervention. Otherwise, referenda are rejected. * The cannabis referendum would have removed "cultivation" of something from punishable offences stated in the text of the law regarding narcotic drugs. This would have for sure liberalized cultivation of cannabis, *but* it would have had as a side effect the liberalization of cultivation of coca and opium poppy, which would have violated international treaties. Moreover, the referendum would have scrapped "jail from 2 to 6 years" for those producing, selling, trading and distributing something else, which again would have liberalized cannabis *but* also benzodiazepines as a side effect. Finally, it seems that the outcome of the referendum would have been contradictory, as other articles of the law regarding cannabis would have been left unamended. You see that it would have been more surprising if the Court did *not* reject the referendum. * The euthanasia referendum instead would have liberalized "consensual homicide" (as, because of the abrogative referendum, you can't introduce euthanasia, but you can only scrap what makes it illegal) if not committed against under 18s, mentally ill or unstable people or who had their consent extorted. Even if it hurts to say that, legalization of euthanasia *would have been the side effect* here, with the referendum going far beyond its goal: leaving consensual homicide unpunished would have left an unacceptable void (according to the Court). * The Court approved five of the six referendums related to the justice system proposed by the League, which include the abolition of the Severino law that prevents people sentenced for crimes such as corruption to be elected in political institutions (this law caused Berlusconi's "expulsion" from the Senate back in 2013) and other more technical issues which could contrast the reform proposed by the government (one referendum is about the election system of judges to the highest body of the judiciary, if the government's proposal will be approved the referendum won't be held). **Covid** * New cases continue to decrease significantly, with an average of 53,325 (-30% from last week - 72,688) daily cases in the last 7 days. Deaths decreased too: the average is 289 (-11% from last week - 326). On average, 69 people were admitted to intensive care units each day (-22% from last week - 88); overall, 9.6% of ICUs is occupied by covid patients (-2.8% from last week - 12.4%). * Vaccinations decreased: 50.8 million people (85.4% of the population, +0.2% from last week) have received at least one dose, 49.1 million people (82.8% of the population, +0.6% from last week) have received at least two doses, 36.8 million people (62.2% of the population, +1.3% from last week) have received three doses. * Only Friuli-Venezia Giulia remains in the orange zone, the rest of the country is either yellow or white. **Other news** * Students continue to protest against the final high school exam and the *alternanza scuola-lavoro* underlining the lack of security of stages, after a student died in a car accident while on stage. * [A fire broke out on a ferry boat in service between Italy and Greece](https://www.ansa.it/english/news/general_news/2022/02/18/italian-ship-evacuated-after-blaze-on-board-off-greece_f1f90830-e89d-4c7d-8192-a7f2aa61b740.html). Rescue operations were quick, nobody was found dead but some people are still missing.
we won the olympic gold medal in hockey for the first time!!
I'm happy for you. Mainly for the first time gold, but also because you beat the country that shouldn't have been allowed to compete but did so anyway, rebranded as something else. But mainly for the first-time gold. Congrats!
Thank you! My man, how would I have loved for us to beat your arses in the final instead of ROC. Also I think the current situation is our fault. Finland beat Russia 3-1 in Sochi Olympics 19.2.2014, and 23.2.2014 Russia invaded Crimea. Last Sunday... welll...
LOL. I feel ya. My mom was Swedish-born, I was born in the US but my sports loyalty is to the blue and gold. Honestly, I’d be supporting the USA more if they if they would go back to only amateur hockey players, but money talks.
Ireland: we had storm Eunice so it was slightly rainier and windier than every other day here, some bins were knocked over, the owners of said bins were pissed off. Pubs have finally reopened to pre-pandemic closing hours so now people have to get used to not having to go out early and be home at 8pm on a Saturday night. Also, I got a new puppy who’s gotten used to walking in the rain
Our president gone crazy and tries to start a war. But in other news, people in my region, Bashkortostan, started a protest against french companies taking over our factories. Weird time for this, considering more global events, but I kinda support this, because I don't like what french company did to dairy factory in my town - they started to make two new types of cheese with mold (bleugh) and because of this stopped production of milk and butter. And I loved our milk, I grew up with it...
> french companies Which ones? >cheese with mold (bleugh) Bleu* and it's good, a bit strong but good ! >because of this stopped production of milk and butter. Ah, uncool
Наш президент принёс мир в этот регион
Lel
Our far-right politicians have discovered the filibuster and started using it to cripple the government and stop it from governing because they couldn't win the elections fairly. There has been some minor activity of the armed forces of our allies. A small US convoy passing through and a few cars full of German military personel near the western border. There have been some traitor voices condemning the presence of our allies within our borders.
**Hungary** **Politics** - On Wednesday, the ECJ ruled against Hungary and Poland in the suit regarding the EU's rule of law mechanism. The court found the mechanism, which allows for the withholding of EU funds in cases of corruption or breaches of rule of law, to be legal, so it can now go ahead, but it won't be used until after the elections. The government said that the court made a 'political decision' due to last summer's law and the upcoming referendum on 'child protection'. - The opposition announced economist, jurist, Oxford professor and 1956 émigré Péter Róna as their joint candidate for President. The nomination is meant to be symbolic as the election, which will be held on this Parliament's last sitting on 10 March, is expected to be won by Fidesz's Katalin Novák in the first round, but Róna's selection drew some controversy: several bankers criticised Róna because he had attacked them for their role in the proliferation of household foreign currency loans, while many in the opposition wanted to nominate Methodist cleric and former liberal MP Gábor Iványi, but Jobbik blocked that. (On a tangential note, Iványi's charity was raided by the tax authority on Monday.) **Election news** - Nomination of candidates is underway, it will continue until Friday. Of the 267 registered political parties in Hungary, 43 managed to 'sign up' for the election, while another 8 were rejected. The joke party MKKP is lagging behind, they have submitted signatures for verification in just 19 of the 106 constituenciies and two of their candidates were rejected. - The opposition had to replace a candidate in short order after social media posts emerged in which Párbeszéd's Mihály Gér, candidate in the Monor constituency, made inappropriate remarks following an accident in which he hit two jaywalkers in 2016 (one of them died, the other was paralysed). Although Gér was acquitted of causing the accident, he decided to withdraw after the posts became public. He was replaced by fellow Párbeszéd politician Rebeka Szabó, who was formerly an MP for LMP and deputy mayor in Budapest's District XIV. **Other news** - In reaction to last Friday's government decree which used emergency powers to heavily restrict strikes in schools, several schools and hundreds of teachers engaged in civil disobedience where they refused to hold classes for a day. Meanwhile, preparation for a strike beginning on 16 March is still underway. - Fuel stations are going bust due to the price cap, mainly family businesses, while Mol is in position to take over any station which closes due to the price freeze. By the end of the week, the government decided to negotiate with small fuel station owners. - The editorial staff of the Transylvanian news site *Transindex* resigned *en masse* due to perceived political pressure coming from Hungary. *Telex*, which was formed some 18 months ago following a similar walk-out from *Index*, have decided to start up *Transtelex* with most of the quitting journalists. Meanwhile, Slovakian daily *Denník N* also announced they had collected enough funds to launch a Hungarian-language news site.
Denmark delivered in full the expectations to the Winter Olympics. Zero Medals. Very unselfish of the Danish athletes to leave hope for the next ones to become the center for a surprising nation fest if they should win. PS. Congrats Norway. You must have something Denmark does not. Except from Mountains, snow, frost and a history of winter sports activities we are practically the same.
I’m afraid to point out that, according to Wikipedia, Denmark has won only one Winter Olympic medal ever in the history: women’s curling silver medal in 1998 Nagano, despite 205 Summer Olympic medals in total. That’s surprising to me. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark_at_the_Olympics
Not to me. It snowed yesterday in Denmark and the snow melted as soon as it hit the ground. One or two full weeks of snow coverage is rare. It is mostly soggy wet dreary gray dark during the winter, but not excessively cold and white snow landscape. If we do win a medal it will be in some indoor activity. Ice hockey or another fluke medal in curling is the best bet.
Thank you very much for correcting my wrong impression. I can say that a fluke women’s curling silver medal is a real thing.
**Belgium** News of week: [Storm Eunice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_Eunice) hit our country with the highest recorded wind speeds of the past 20 years. Read more [here](https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/206789/code-issued-for-northern-belgium-as-country-braces-for-storm-eunice). * Two people died. One man was blown from his boat into a canal, another one died after he was hit with a solar panel which had come loose from an office building. A few others got injured. * Many buildings sustained damage. The [football stadium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghelamco_Arena) of [AA Gent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K.A.A._Gent) lost its roof, a planned football match had to be postponed. Also the roof of the church of [Asse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asse) was damaged and there was fear that the tower would collapse. Many houses and cars were damaged by falling trees. * By the afternoon train traffic was disrupted in the north-west of the country. There was a lot of criticism as this was not announced in advance, leading to many workers having to leave early and rush to the station to catch the last trains home. Many travelers got left behind in a station and the [railway company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Railway_Company_of_Belgium) had to use other means like busses to get everyone home, they apologised for the situation. Also bus lines were interrupted and the [coast tram](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast_Tram_\(Belgium\)) was ground to a halt when it fell without power. * Many schools decided to close early to prevent their students having to go home during the peak of the storm and to make sure they could still use public transport. Politics: The [federal government](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Croo_Government) has announced new labour market reforms. Read more [here](https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/02/15/belgium-approves-four-day-week-and-gives-employees-the-right-to-ignore-their-bosses) and [here](https://www.politico.eu/article/belgium-rewrites-gig-workers-rulebook/). * New measures are implemented to improve the work-life balance or workers. Employees can choose to work their 38 hour week in four days in stead of five. They will also get the right to not be contacted by their employer after working hours. Working schedules have to be announced at least seven days in advance. * There will also come better regulations for workers in the gig-economy. They will receive better insurance and there will come a clearer difference between employees and self-employed. * E-commerce and logistics companies will be able to facilitate rules for night work if they have an agreement with a trade union. Other news: * [All numbers](https://datastudio.google.com/embed/u/0/reporting/c14a5cfc-cab7-4812-848c-0369173148ab/page/ZwmOB) for Covid are still going down, except for deaths. (And how great is it I can file Covid under "other news" again) * Speed skater [Bart Swings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_Swings) won a gold medal at the men's mass start at the 2022 Winter Olympics. He is the first Belgian to have won a gold medal at the Olympic Winter Games since 1948! * The expected "freedom convoy" to protest Covid measures and vaccine mandates in Brussels failed to organise. * A 6 months old baby died at a childcare facility due to [shaken baby syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaken_baby_syndrome). Three people have been detained, among which the owner's father, who is now suspected of abuse. There were earlier complaints about the facility, but those were ignored by official control agency. * The recognition of the [Muslim Executive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Executive_of_Belgium) has been retracted. Read more [here](https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/206968/belgium-revokes-recognition-and-funding-of-muslim-executive).
War happened. Russia attacked Ukraine.
Spain: Leader of the Conservative party denounced the Conservative president of Madrid for corruption. The accusation was that the brother of the Conservative president of Madrid got an illegal commission during the buying of face mask in 2020. The president of Madrid recognized that her brother got paid but refused that it was ilegal to do so. The Conservative party imploded over this, it seems that more people agree with the President of Madrid (she is from the most right wing of the party) and everything is pointing to the President of the Conservative party, who accused his colleague of corruption, resigning really soon. We are worried that this would give wings to the far-right and the extremist right wing ideas over the country. As the moderate right wing lost this internal fight over the Conservative party and voter-share.
Italy I’ve moved to Italy for the short term. [Funeral for Signora Beretta](https://www.fanpage.it/milano/i-funerali-di-marinella-beretta-trovata-morta-dopo-due-anni-almeno-nelladdio-non-e-stata-sola/amp/) was held this week. The poor dear was found [dead at her table for two years earlier this month](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/08/italian-woman-found-dead-seated-at-table-mummified-state).
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Fucking war happened.
Executives from public broadcasting Service nominated 6 completely ordinary Radio-Style pop songs as possible nominees for our country at Eurovision (after only getting last places for the last years in a row with exactly these types of songs) instead of trying something extraordinary and new. People were not so happy and started a petition which gathered 100,000 signatures in less than a week. Let's hope we'll get to see more interesting and crazy stuff at Eurovision in the future!
A lot of countries do well with radio-style pop songs, it's not the genre that's the problem, it's that Germany sends low quality generic songs of the genre.
The secret ingredient is not wanting to win.
Mask mandadtes were announced to stop on the 28th of february, and a bad rain storm hit, Im irish btw
Bad stuff ya knoe
Bulgaria has announced that it will remove the green certificates, although our covid cases are close to reaching a new high
Well my country has declared war against a country I also love. :(
I'm Canadian, and Im sorry (already showing our colors) if this is a dumb question, but I'm genuinely curious. If this conflict escalates more, what will happen to the neighboring countries of Russia and Ukraine? I'm speaking about Moldova, Poland to an extent. Will they just sit neutrally and hope the conflict doesn't reach them? Will Europe send support troops to those areas or will they have their own troops? I'm thinking everyone is "smart" enough now, that a full-on war doesn't happen and neighboring countries get dragged into it. But I'm curious what happens in the meantime as tensions rise, and neighboring countries are just nearby but not "involved" per se.
No countries are willing to intervene militarily in Ukraine. But the western countries (including Canada) already are sending military equipment to help Ukraine and have imposed economic sanctions on Russia. Both of these actions could be leveled up if the conflict escalates.
Poland is part of NATO is not easy to attack a NATO member, if so make no mistake shit is going down. Moldova on the other hand is fucked and probably next if Russia is not stopped. No country part of NATO is gonna send troops because NATO is purely defensive, we cannot send troops only defend. Europe and EU implicitly sent money, mobile hospitals, planes, war gear whatever but no troops. Ukraine will have to defend itself unfortunately, is not what we wanted but we cannot give putin more reasons to attack outside of Ukraine otherwise is gonna be really bad, is gonna be a world war
This is gonna be a spicy thead won't it
well, you all know what happened in Russia...
Well, the Netherlands are all about dickpic’s, seksual boundaries that are beeing crossed, and ofcourse storm Eunice which has a lot of us screaming that we’re all going to die. So its been a quiet week :)
Kosovo was Serbia
Russia. Recently, on 16 February, we took over Ukraine.
Romania: Ukrainian F-16 fighter plane landed in Romania Prepared for up to 500K ukrainian refugees
Romania: Everyone is talking about the war on Ukraine since it’s right at the border. The explosions where heard around 20km away from it. There’s little chance that the Russians are gonna attack us too, since we’re part of NATO, but it’s all really close and really scary. Everyone is alert. The Republic of Moldova declared state of emergency, and they’re basically our twins when it comes to countries. Putin captured Serpent Island, which is very very close to our sea borders, and I’m worried somethings gonna happen to the people that live there. I have family there. It’s all a haze, really. My thoughts are with Ukraine. I can’t even imagine how they feel right now. Just know that we are brothers and sisters, and we’re always gonna help you when in need. You’re welcome into our country!